Turkish aid agency TİKA equips training center in Ethiopia


Turkey's Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TİKA) has fully furnished an education and training center in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.TİKA's Ethiopia Coordinator Ismail Durhat, accompanied by his deputy Fazıl Akın Erdoğan, on Wednesday handed over the equipment to the training center, a local NGO known as Model Graduates Initiative for Education and Training (MGIET).MGIET runs its education and training program in its center located in the western suburbs of Addis Ababa.TİKA refurbished MGIET with supplies of laptops, LCDs, TV sets, window blinds (curtains), chairs and tables, among other materials."TİKA is pleased to assist in the efforts of MGIET to help expand education in Ethiopia," said Durhat on the occasion."Education," he said, "is a lifelong endeavor aimed at multi-dimensional development of the individual person and society in general."He said TİKA -- Turkey's official aid and development agency -- would continue to provide the training center with assistance that would help it expand its educational, training and research programs.According to MGIET President of the Board of Directors, Bin Melik, the organization established in 2010 has now 20 people as beneficiaries who are pursuing higher-level education towards a master's degree under the program provided by the organization."For the time being we concentrate on higher level education in Addis Ababa, a women learning program in Silt'e zone of the southern Ethiopia regional state, and a school support program in the Afar regional state," he said.MGIET is currently running projects such as soft skill development project for first-year university students, a local post graduate scholarship program, and capacity building training, among others, according to a brochure circulated on the occasion.It said so far the center has provided trainers' training for more than 57 youths who are at different education levels, and conducted pedagogy training for 27 primary school teachers at Awash Military camp, and provided soft skill personal development trainings for high and preparatory school students' from the Afar regional state.MGIET says it envisions becoming a leading development organization that aspires to see indispensable and efficient scholars who greatly contribute to the development goals of Ethiopia.